New laptops expected to approach Ivy Bridge performance, but come up a bit shy of it

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is still struggling to compete with the "double-whammy" of ARM chipmakers like Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd.'s (KSC:A005930) and Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM), as well as perennial x86 rival Intel Corp. (INTC).

Even as AMD plots a precarious shift to the ARM architecture amid this troubled run, it is still seeing strong sales of its "Fusion" accelerated processing units (APU) which pair AMD CPU cores with on-die GPU cores.

First -- a quick recap on what Richland is; Richland (in this case the quad-core AMD A10-5750M) is AMD's second generation 32 nanometer APU design. Like its predecessor Trinity, it is based on the Piledriver core design. AMD's experience with the 32 nm node has allowed it to bump clock speeds roughly 10 percent. Richland also gets a new Neptune on-die graphics processing unit (dGPU) -- Radeon HD 8970M.

Like the new "Iris" dGPUs set to launch shortly, the Radeon HD 8970M has its own dedicated memory -- 2 GB of GDDR5, to be precise. However, the memory in the AMD Neptune GPUs is likely slightly slower as it's in an MXM module, versus directly on-die with Iris.

Unfortunately, it's not a true Graphics Core Next GPU like its HD 8000 series counterparts. Instead it uses a reduced version of HD 7000 series core designs (not true GCN), with a bumped clock.

Here are the full specs on MSI's pair of G Series models:

GX70 3BE-007US

GX60 3AE-216US

Processor

AMD A10-5750 (2.5-3.5 GHZ)

Operation System

Windows 8

Chipset

A76M FCH

A70M FCH

Display

17.3" Full HD Non Reflection

15.6" Full HD Non Reflection

Resolution

1920x1080 (16:9)

Graphic

AMD Radeon™ HD 8970M (2G GDDR5)

AMD Radeon™ HD 7970M (2G GDDR5)

Hard Disk Drive

750GB (7200 RPM)

Memory

8GB DDR3 1600MHz

Optical Drive

Blu-ray Disc Reader

LAN / Bluetooth

Killer™ E2200 Game Networking

Wireless

AW-NB114H Combo (b/g/n)+BT4.0

AW-NB100H (802.11 b/g/n)

Card Reader

SD (XC/HC)

Audio Ports

Headset AMP + Gold Flash jacks

USB

USB 3.0 x 3USB 2.0 x 2

USB 3.0 x 3USB 2.0 x 1

HDMI

HDMI 1.4 / mDP v1.2

Webcam

720P HD Webcam

Speaker

THX Speakers x 2 + Subwooferx1

Battery

9 cell

Keyboard

SteelSeries Gaming Backlit

SteelSeries (Chiclet)

Touchpad

Multi Touch

Dimension (WxDxH)

16.85"x11.34"x2.17"

14.97"x10.24"x1.77"

Weight (w battery)

8.6 lbs.

7.7 lbs.

MSRP

$1,399.99

$1,299.99

Don't expect the performance gaming-wise to match Ivy Bridge. Trinity trailed Ivy Bridge; Richland is expected to close that gap, but not all the way. And with Haswell around the corner AMD looks to continue to compete with Intel for customers and design wins in much the way it did in the Trinity vs. Ivy Bridge era -- on a price basis (Intel's chips, while outperforming AMD's, are significantly more expensive leading to higher laptop price points).

Source: MSI

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